It is known that there are many problems in the development of low-molecular-weight inhibitors that inhibit protein-protein interactions, but because of their importance, attempts have been continuously made to develop lower-molecular-weight substances that inhibits protein-protein interactions, and several successful examples have been reported (Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 3:853, 2004). Methods for developing new drugs generally comprise constructing a specific assay system and performing high-throughput screening of a library of several ten to several million compounds using the assay system. These methods have been applied mainly in multinational pharmaceutical companies because of various limitations such as the amount of compounds to be analyzed or the construction of high-speed screening systems and were difficult to apply in small-scale laboratories. In order to construct a new high-throughput screening system for screening a relatively small-sized library of tens of thousands of compounds, such as a library of natural substances, there is a need to prove the concept at low costs within a short time. Also, in the case of small and medium-scale laboratories such as schools and institutes, a strategy that obtains lead compounds using new conceptual assay systems and screening systems is required.
Thus, it is required to establish new drug-screening methods using previously constructed chip systems made of inexpensive polymers, which are suitable for chip-based screening which can be applied to a small number of samples, thereby ensuring original technology. This will contribute to enhancing the infrastructure of the new drug development industry.
Accordingly, the present inventors have made extensive efforts to a chip-based method for screening inhibitors of protein-protein interactions, which can be advantageously used even in laboratory-based, small-scale experimentation. As a result, the present inventors have found that the use of a protein chip spotted with a mixture of a sol-gel material and a protein enables a protein-protein interaction inhibitor to be easily screened using an existing antibody assay method, thereby completing the present invention.